Force of Habit
by iWrites
Summary: When Walter gets zapped during a routine case, the team's entire world changes. The shock seems to have triggered Walter's EQ and he's having a hard time adjusting to his feelings. Luckily for him, Paige is there to help him out. Waige with a touch of Quintis.
1. Pilot

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Scorpion, CBS does.

"I've told you multiple times already, Toby, I would appreciate it if you'd stop meddling in my personal business." Walter said with a monotonous voice. He didn't like people constantly giving him advice. Experience had taught him it was both more efficient and rewarding when he solved his own problems.

"Walter, listen. I'm just trying to help, that doesn't mean you have to go through with everything I say." Toby sounded honest, but Walter knew all the shrink's tricks. He knew that if Toby sounded honest, he had to be lying.

"No Toby, I'm not going to listen to your whining anymore. I'm done! Cut the crap!" Walter shouted loudly, his face bright-red in anger.

He didn't really understand his feelings towards Toby right now. The frustration he was experiencing didn't feel natural. He had never felt something like this before.

Overcome with emotion, Walter darted for the stairs and ran up in Bolt-like fashion. He reached for the handle, yanked open the door, hurried inside, and loudly slammed the door shut after him.

He turned around and looked around his room without registering what he was seeing. "Breathe," He whispered to himself. Powerlessness clouded his mind; he didn't like not being in control. It was a situation he wasn't accustomed to and he didn't think he would ever be.

It had been a long, sleepless night and he hoped that was the cause for his absurd behavior. Walter walked towards his bed, passing clothes and broken gadgets scattered on the bedroom floor. Slightly distracted by the thought of imminent sleep, Walter stubbed his toe on the nightstand, causing him to fly into another fit. To release his anger, he slammed his fist into the wall above his headrest. It went right through.

A numbing pain shot through Walter's hand and he quickly retracted it. His entire hand was soaked in blood and small pieces of stone were still embedded in his skin. Not trying to think about the consequences, Walter crashed onto bed and started crying. It was the first time Walter O'Brien had ever done so.

"Why is this happening to me?" He muttered, his face burrowed in his pillow.

* * *

Toby was standing in the garage, mouth agape, when the rest of the team finally arrived from the latest case. A solution was found relatively easily. They short-circuited a hacker's network, after which they were able to strengthen the firewall of the attacked network. Just one small issue arose when they short-circuited the router. Walter got electrocuted and was out for several minutes. Toby had headed back earlier to do a more thorough check-up on Walter's condition.

"Toby!" Paige waved her hand in front of Toby's face. "Deep in thought?" She questioned him with a smile.

"No," Toby took a few steps towards his desk and started going through some case files. "It's just Walter, he's acting a bit… odd."

"What do you mean? Walter always acts odd." Toby looked up from the case files and directly at her. "Everyone here always acts odd." Paige muttered more to herself than to Toby.

"That hurts." Toby grimaced and put both of his hands over his hearts. "But I understand what you're saying and I'm afraid it's not exactly like that. Let's just say he's acting abnormal compared to his usual behavior."

"Okay…" Paige sighed. "What's so weird about it then?" She was curious as to what was going on with Walter.

"Well, I asked him if he was all right in the car, he said he was fine, even though he clearly wasn't. I told him I could see there was something wrong and he started flipping out. When we got back he hurried upstairs and I haven't seen him since." Toby explained. "Oh… and I heard quite a lot of racket upstairs, I think he might have thrown something too."

Paige was flustered at the news. It wasn't that Walter had never shown emotional behavior, in fact, she felt like his EQ had never been this high, although it was still nowhere near normal human levels. It was the lack of motivation behind this show of emotion that flustered her most.

"Maybe you should go check on him." Toby asked her as he sat down in his ergonomic chair and scowled. Even after all this time, Toby still despised her for replacing his old one. "I'd do it myself, but I'm afraid I'd be bombarded with mugs."

"Ohh…" Paige was getting a bit worried now. "So you think I'd make a better target than you? Thanks a lot!"

"No, Paige. Walter wouldn't even hurt you to save his own life, you know." Paige frowned. "You don't know? Never mind then, good luck!" Toby smiled shyly and put on his headphones.

Realizing that their conversation was over, Paige decided to go check up on Walter. She took a small detour past the kitchen to get some coffee for the both of them and snuck up the stairs.

"Great, get him some more mugs to throw!" Toby yelled unnecessarily loud, although the pair of headphones was to blame.

"Shh!" She hushed him as she carefully opened the door, not trying to startle Walter.

Walter was lying face-down in his bed. The wall behind him had a huge, gaping hole in it. Even more upsetting, Walter seemed to be crying. Surely something was wrong with her ears. Walter O'Brien never cried, never ever.

"Walter?" She tried with a small voice, doing her best to hide her anxiety. "Walter, are you okay?"

When he heard her speak, he burrowed his face even deeper in his pillow in a futile attempt to muffle his crying. She found it difficult to imagine what could have caused the stoic Walter O'Brien to act like this.

She sidestepped several objects strewn across his bedroom floor and made her way to his bed. After putting the mugs she was holding on his bedside table, she plopped down next to him. "Walter?" She tried again, as she lightly stroked his shoulder. This time he did respond, though not the way she had imagined him to.

He turned around and looked her right in the eyes. "Help me please." His lips trembled when he uttered the words. Dried tears stained his face and his right hand looked like it had been stuck in a barbwire fence. "Walter, what happened?"

"I don't know." He shut his eyes. "I feel miserable."

"I can see that." A small chuckle escaped her lips. "What happened to your hand?"

"I hit the wall." Paige frowned at his statement. "There was nothing to throw." He made it sound like it was the most normal thing in the world to punch holes in your walls.

"Walter could you try and sit on the side of the bed, then I'll go and get some bandages and antiseptics, I'll be right back." Paige proposed as she got up to leave.

"Okay." Walter reminded her a bit of Ralph after being bullied at school. She had not expected to ever see him in this state. Being fragile was something that just didn't fit her view of Walter O'Brien.

She watched Walter scoot over to the edge of his bed and then went to get the first aid kit downstairs. All three geniuses were standing near the bottom of the stairs and were looking at her like she was an attraction in an amusement park.

"Do I have something on my face?" She asked, although she knew that wasn't the case. "If you want to know what's going on with Walter, you'll have to go and check yourselves. I'm not going to tell you anything just yet."

Toby, Happy and Sly quickly retreated to their own desks and continued their work. This kind of behavior frustrated her sometimes, though she knew there was nothing she could do about it.

After finding the first aid kit in one of the kitchen cabinets, she headed back towards the stairs.

"Is he hurt? Maybe I should go and help him if he's hurt." Toby asked when he saw her carrying it.

"It's just a bruise, he'll be fine." She evaded him and went back upstairs.

When she entered his bedroom, he was still sitting on the edge of his bed, gazing straight ahead, as if there was something interesting happening there.

Paige walked over to Walter and sat down next to him. His hand had started swelling while she had been away, if it didn't stop they'd have to go to a hospital for some better treatment. If it was fractured he'd need more professional help than hers.

He extended his hand while she rummaged through the bag, looking for the antiseptics. The spray must have hurt Walter, because his hand contracted when the cold drops first hit.

"Why'd you hit the wall, Walter?" She questioned once again as she used a pincer to remove most of the pieces of stone still embedded in his bruised hand.

"I don't know. I just got mad and I had to do something." Tears were starting to form again, Walter looked so fragile. To her surprise she was starting to find this behavior kind of cute.

She wiped the new tears on his face away with her thumb and smiled. "Now tell me. When did Walter O'Brien start crying?"

"I'm sorry." Walter uttered. His apology confused Paige, what was he apologizing for?

"No need to be sorry for anything." A forced smile appeared on her face, desperately trying to comfort Walter so he would open up to her and tell her what was going on.

"I know. I just felt the need to." Walter suddenly looked at his bedroom door as if he had spotted something or someone there.

"Walter." His eyes locked onto hers once again. "Listen, when I'm done bandaging your hand, sleep a bit, you look like you haven't done so in quite a while."

"Okay." He nodded his head.

She applied the bandage to his hand and noticed he started to zone out again.

"Okay. I think that should be good for now. I suggest you rest a bit." He just nodded and put his head on his pillow. He seemed very tired.

Paige was glad he was finally calm, although she still had a lot of questions. What had caused Walter's state? He sure as hell wasn't acting normal and she was bound to find out about it sometime.

She got up and carefully walked towards the door, trying not to make more noise than necessary. When she reached it she looked back at Walter and muttered to herself. "O'Brien… What have you gotten yourself into now."

Closing the door behind her, she walked downstairs and vowed she would stay in the garage until Walter was sane again.


	2. The Morning After

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Scorpion, CBS does.

Paige nearly burned her tongue sipping absent-mindedly on some scorching hot coffee. She had had a hard time focusing on her paperwork all afternoon after the whole Walter-ordeal.

It had happened before, that was true, the governor's sick daughter, his car crash, Walter's emotions in all of those circumstances were ordinarily normal and completely explainable. She just didn't understand what had triggered those buried emotions this time, that's what bothered her most.

A light tap on the shoulder brought her back to her senses. She turned around to Sly standing right behind her, his head cast downward and his hands rummaging in his pockets. He looked just like he always did, a nervous wreck.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Sylvester?" She smiled reassuringly, a futile attempt at making him feel at ease.

"Err… You know." He gazed up "I was just wondering how Walter is doing."

"He'll be fine" She gave him another one of her calming smiles, although this time, it seemed to work a bit better. "You can go talk to him if you want, he might be asleep though."

"Maybe I will." Sly uttered more to himself than to Paige, however his face revealed that wasn't going to happen any time soon. He headed back to his desk and sat down. Her reassuring vibe seemed to have paid off though, as Sylvester started running calculations once again. At least someone was being productive today.

Toby had headed home early after he realized he wasn't going to be able to check Walter's hand today and Happy was undoubtedly making some intricate device, or otherwise just hitting things with her hammer.

She knew that Sly and Happy would be heading home soon too, that would leave her with only Walter for company.

Paige quickly realized that she wasn't going to get any more work done today, she got up and headed towards the kitchen for another cup of coffee before heading up the stairs to Walter's bedroom. She spotted Walter, still fast asleep, and silently made her way over to him. It looked like Walter's hand had stopped swelling, at least that was a good sign.

After heading towards the dark green armchair that rested next to Walter's bed, she plopped down and watched his sleeping figure for some time, but eventually she too succumbed to sleep.

* * *

Walter was sitting atop a wooden jetty, his feet dangling over the edge. The water lapping against the sturdy jetty poles sprayed his feet with cool water droplets. Seagulls were screeching overhead. He looked behind him, at the beach that was bound to be there, but all he could see was a thick carpet of fog.

The jetty didn't seem to be attached to anything at all, there was no land in sight, he was sitting on a jetty in the middle of an ocean.

He heard the floorboards creak underneath him, someone was here, he was sure of it. Slowly but surely, he was able to discern a figure in the fog, coming straight toward him.

He didn't know who the figure was, still it's mere existence managed to calm him down. At least he was no longer trapped in the middle of the ocean on his own.

The first thing that reached him was the smell, a heavenly sweet spring-blossom perfume caused his nostrils to flare as he inhaled the scent to the fullest. He realized who it was that was coming toward him. He had smelled her perfume many times before and had become quite accustomed to it.

"Walter?" Paige's voice sounded hoarse and echoed around him, as if they were in a cavern deep under the earth and not in the middle of an ocean. He opened his mouth to respond to her call, but he was unable to produce any sound. All he could do was stand there, on the middle of the jetty, with his mouth wide open.

Paige had now emerged from the fog and was just a few steps away from him. The closer she got, the faster she seemed to be going. Right before impact, Walter instinctively opened his arms as Paige crashed right into him. She wrapped her arms tightly around him and buried her face deep in his chest.

They had shared hugs before, but never quite like this. He gently rubbed her back and felt a strange tingling sensation in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't place.

She pulled back sooner than Walter had expected and he couldn't hide his disappointment. This caused Paige to smile broadly before leaning in toward him.

Time seemed to slow down. For only a moment, Walter forgot everything, he forgot who he was, he forgot where he was, he even forgot Fermat's last theorem. The only thing on his mind were Paige and this moment.

Milliseconds before their lips were going to crash together, Walter felt a tug on his shoulder and he woke up.

* * *

It was 7 AM when Toby walked into the empty garage. Walter had been asleep in his room since yesterday afternoon, so by now he had to be well-rested.

Most importantly, he wanted to check on Walter's hand. Paige hadn't allowed him to wake Walter up yesterday, instead describing the way Walter's hand looked to him in specific detail. Off course he trusted Paige's judgement, but he couldn't let something serious happen to Walter.

When he saw Paige, fast asleep, breathing loudly, he grabbed a blanket and carefully draped it on top of her, taking care not to wake her up. Then, he went on to softly shake Walter's shoulder to wake him up.

When Walter opened his eyes, he seemed slightly flustered and strangely disappointed to see the shrink.

"Hey buddy." He spoke no louder than a whisper. "I want to check on your hand really quickly."

"Okay" Walter obliged with a small voice.

Toby cautiously unwrapped the bandage on Walter's hand and tended to the wound. The hand still looked quite bruised, but it had clearly stopped swelling.

"Looks like you're going to be fine Walt." Toby said with a gentle smile. "You still tired?"

Walter blinked twice and shifted his body slightly so he could see Paige sleeping in the armchair next to him, this seemed to take him aback. "A bit." He finally managed.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then." Toby stated as he got up and headed for the door. He looked back once, to see Walter's figure lying right underneath a gaping hole in the wall. He still couldn't understand what drove Walter so far, he didn't even react this heavily to his sister's death. The rest of the morning, Toby kept himself busy with Paige's leftover paperwork.

* * *

Off course Walter couldn't be mad at Toby for what he did, he only woke him up to check if he was okay. However, that didn't mean that Walter wasn't annoyed at the shrink's bad timing. He was even more curious about his dream, though. What did it mean? What was he feeling? Walter absolutely hated not knowing things and there aren't many of those when you have a 197 IQ.

Paige looked perfectly at peace in the chair, the blanket carefully draped over her. Her head softly rose and fell with every single breath and she emitted a soft purr every time she inhaled. He didn't know how long he looked at her, resting in the armchair, before her eyes started to flutter open. She looked slowly around the room, slightly dazed, but once she spotted him, her eyes opened completely and a tender smile appeared on her face.

Walter was lost for words, maybe his incessant staring was creeping her out. "Everything alright?" He asked innocently.

A small chuckle escaped her lips. "You're not seriously asking me if I'm okay?" She raised her eyebrows lightly: "Are you?"

Walter hadn't forgotten what had happened yesterday, he just couldn't fathom it. How could he, Walter O'Brien, be so emotional that he punched a hole in his wall and seriously injured his hand in the process? Another question he didn't have an answer to.

"Where'd your bandage go?" Paige asked in a voice seeping with worry and empathy. She got up and walked over to Walter's bed.

"Oh… Toby came by to check on my hand earlier, he said it was going to be fine." Walter explained casually. His hand still hurt, it had a blue-purplish hue and throbbed louder than his heart. He could see it wasn't fractured, though, and that was a big relief, he had already gone through enough trouble the last time his hand was incapacitated.

"Walter?" Paige looked away from Walter, her eyes finally focusing on the hole above his nightstand "Why'd you do it?"

Walter knew what she was talking about, even though her vague question could imply many things. "I don't remember." He answered honestly as he locked eyes with her once again. The moment reminded him of a sweet dream he'd had recently.

"Could you just promise me one thing Walter?" Paige asked as she broke the eye-contact once again.

"Off course."

Paige reached out for his uninjured hand and grasped it between both of hers. "Promise me you'll tell me if you remember." She was completely serious as she said so, not a hint of a smile playing at her lips.

"I promise." Walter responded truthfully. The tingly sensation in his stomach was returning now that she was holding his hand.

"Good." Paige smiled broadly and patted his uninjured hand before getting up and heading towards the door. "I should get going now, I have to make sure I have dinner for Ralph when he arrives back from school this afternoon."

"Where did he sleep last night?" Walter asked worriedly, Ralph hadn't entered his mind since he had returned from the case yesterday. With Paige staying with him in the garage, someone had to take care of Ralph.

"Oh, he slept over at Happy's, she didn't mind it and they still had some work on one of those projects of hers."

"That's good." Walter smiled and Paige got up and went towards the door, however there was one last question burning on Walter's mind. "Paige, do you ever have dreams?"

Paige stopped mid-stride and turned around. "Off course I do Walter, everyone does." She looked puzzled. "We all dream, every night, most of the time we don't even remember them."

"What does it mean when we do remember them? Very vividly." Walter tried to act nonchalant, like he was making normal conversation, not that he ever did, Paige could clearly see right through him.

"It means we enjoyed them." Another small chuckle escaped her lips. Walter hung on every single one of Paige's words now: "They show us our greatest desires."

Even Walter knew that it was blaringly obvious that he was staring at her and he suspected she knew too. "Go take a shower and join us downstairs, everyone should be here by now and they're all worried sick about you."

Still completely star-struck by Paige's words all he could manage was a weak: "okay." After which Paige turned around and headed back downstairs.


End file.
